JPH1185518A - Controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain object orientation of a sequential program that is described in a language that is not an object oriented programming language by starting a method that executes a sequential program based on information that shows whether to start a stored method or not. SOLUTION: When a method 'Method-B1' in an object B is started, an operating part 111 of a CPU unit 11 sets operation quality change information about a property 'property-b' of the object B in an area 133 for internal contact in a shared memory 13 when it finishes preceding processing to send a message. And it outputs a message that starts a method of the object B to the object B. Then, it refers to a property stored in the area 133 for the internal contact and performs post-processing to send a message after performing processing at the time of ON when the property is ON and processing at the time of OFF when it is OFF.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control device for executing a sequential program by sequentially transmitting messages to methods constituting a sequential program for controlling a control device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as systems become more complex and large-scale, programming based on object orientation has been performed in order to solve the enormous manpower and time required for software development. ing.

[0003] This object-oriented programming is
For example, as shown in FIG. 9, when an operation (hereinafter, referred to as a method) described by a function that defines the behavior of the data of the object A ends, a predetermined method (Method) in the object B is transmitted from the object A to the object B.
-b2) (Call Method-b2)
), And then the object B that has received the message executes the method (Method-b2) specified by the message, and then, if there is an object to be executed, instructs the execution of a predetermined method of the object. Is sent.

As described above, in the object-oriented programming, a predetermined processing operation is finally executed by transmitting a message from one object to another object.

[0005] The object-oriented programming as described above has the following advantages.

[0006] By being able to reflect real-world phenomena in the natural world of the computer, the model in the computer can be adapted to the human thinking. Changes and extensions to the system can be made in units of objects. When a new program is formed, an existing program can be easily reused or expanded.

In the field of factory automation (FA), a programmable controller as a control device for controlling a device to be controlled, as a language for describing a sequence program, directly links the concept of designing a relay sequence to programming, In general, a ladder program mainly using a unit of contact control is used.

[0008]

However, since the ladder program used for the sequence program for controlling the programmable controller is not the above-described object-oriented programming language, it has the above-mentioned advantages of the object-oriented programming language. There was a problem that not.

Conversely, a sequence program for controlling the programmable controller is not a ladder program but an object-oriented programming language (for example, C
++, Java, Small Talk80, etc.), there is a problem that the overhead required for the function call is too large, which is irrational and impractical.

In addition, since it is necessary that both the calling side and the called side be described in the same language, an access method is limited from a control unit having a special function, which is a problem in design. was there.

In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a control method for executing a sequential program described in a ladder program that has object orientation and reduces processing overhead. As a first object.

It is a second object of the present invention to provide a control device which can be executed even when both the calling side and the called side are described in different languages.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a message is sequentially transmitted to a method constituting a sequential program for controlling a control device. In a control device in which the received method executes the sequential program, start information storage means for storing start information indicating whether or not the method should be started, and the start information stored in the start information storage means. And a method executing means for executing the method based on the activation information.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a control device for transmitting a message sequentially to a method constituting a sequential program for controlling a control device so that the method receiving the message executes the sequential program. A boot information storage unit for storing boot information indicating whether or not the method should be started; and executing a sequential program described in a ladder language based on the boot information stored in the boot information storage unit. And a second method executing means for executing a sequential program described in a programming language other than the ladder language based on the activation information stored in the activation information storage means. To do.

The third aspect of the present invention provides the first or second aspect.
In the invention described in the above, there is provided boot information specifying information storage means for storing specification information for specifying a location of the boot information stored in the boot information storage means.

According to the present invention, a method for executing a sequential program is started based on start information indicating whether or not a method stored in the start information storage means should be started. Can be made object-oriented.

Further, a first method execution means for executing a sequential program described in a ladder language, which is executed based on the start information stored in the activation information storage means, and a first method execution means for executing a sequential program described in a programming language other than the ladder language. Since it has the second method execution means for executing the sequential program, it is possible to mix and use objects in an arbitrary language centering on the ladder language.

[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a control device according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an implementation concept of an object processed by the control device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the control device according to the present invention.

First, before describing the configuration of the control device of the present embodiment, an implementation concept for a sequential program for controlling the control device of the present embodiment to have object orientation will be described.

In order for the sequential program for controlling the control device of this embodiment to be object-oriented, the objects to be mounted have the configuration described below, and have the configuration of the shared memory described below. There is a need.

Configuration of Objects to be Implemented Objects to be implemented in the control device of this embodiment are as follows.
As shown in FIG. 1, a method (object A in FIG.
Is the method of Method-A1 and Method-A2, and the object B is the method of Method-B1 and Method-B
2 ) And a property (Property-a for the object A in FIG. 1 and Property-b for the object B in FIG. 1) for changing the behavior and properties of the object.

Regarding the shared memory The shared memory provided in the control device of this embodiment includes:
As shown in FIG. 1, it has activation information on the methods of all the mounted objects and operation / property change information of the objects on the parity.

The start information and the operation / property change information are both stored in a "0" or "1" signal state.

With the above-described implementation concept, the control device of this embodiment responds to the method "Method-B1" in the object B in the shared memory by a message, for example, as shown in FIG. When the activation information (the location of the mark A) to be activated is changed from “0” to “1” and the activation is possible, the method “Method-B
1 "executes the corresponding processing.

Therefore, a message transmitted to execute a method of a predetermined object simply changes the activation information in the shared memory to “0” or “1”, and does not depend on the grammar.

For this reason, it is possible to mix and use objects in an arbitrary language centering on the ladder language. A plurality of execution systems (CPUs) can be mixedly used. The operation overhead can be reduced. Cooperation with a special (high-performance) unit can be easily performed.

Next, the configuration of a control device according to an embodiment in which objects having the above-described concept are mounted will be described.

As described above, the control device of this embodiment is a programmable controller having an object-oriented implementation concept. As shown in FIG. 2, the control device includes a CPU unit 11, a data memory 12, and a shared memory 13.
An object management table 14, an input unit 15 for outputting input information from sensors and motors to the CPU unit 11, an output unit 16 for outputting output information from the CPU unit 11 to an actuator or the like; Unit 1
7 are connected to a system bus 18 such as an address bus and a data bus.

The CPU unit 11 includes an arithmetic unit 111 for controlling the programmable controller itself, and a storage unit 112 for storing a sequence program for controlling the processing of the arithmetic unit 111.

Since the storage unit 112 stores the sequence program, it is obvious that the method
It stores program parts that execute methods such as -A1, Method-A2, Method-B1, and Method-B2.

The data memory 12, as shown in FIG.
Data used by a method in an object when controlling a control target device is divided and stored for each object.

Note that an object divided for each data used by a method in an object is called an instance.

The shared memory 13 stores input / output (I / O) signals of input contacts for controlling devices to be controlled such as sensors and motors.
t) An input contact area 131 for storing information, an output contact area 132 for storing I / O information of an output contact for controlling a device to be controlled such as an actuator, and a method for all mounted object methods. It has an internal contact area 133 for storing start-up information and operation / property change information of an object for parity. Note that the start information and the operation / property change information are referred to as internal contact information.

Here, the I / O information of the input contact, the I / O information of the output contact, the start information and the operation / property change information are:
Each of them is stored in a “0 (OFF)” or “1 (ON)” signal state.

The object management table 14 includes a CPU
The information of the object existing in the unit 11 and the special high-performance unit 17 is stored, and is used when specifying an object to which a message is to be transmitted,
As shown in FIG. 4A, an object name storage area 141a for storing an object name, a method name area 142a for storing a method name of an object, and a method activation for storing a method activation contact number associated with the method name. It has a contact number area 143a, a method storage address area 144a for storing a head address of a program for executing a method stored in the storage unit 112 in the CPU unit 11, and a method storage address area 144a shown in FIG.
As shown in (b), an object name storage area 141b for storing object names, a property name area 142b for storing property names of the objects, and a property assignment contact number area for storing property assignment contact numbers associated with the properties. 143b.

Incidentally, the method "Meth" of the object A
od-A1 ”has a method start contact number of“ X + 00 ”.
00.00 ”and the method storage address is“ 100
00 ”, and the method start contact number of the property“ Property-a ”is“ X + 0000.03 ”.

Here, the base contact number X refers to a reference contact number.

Further, the object management table 14
Although not shown, it also stores free memory area information, unused contact information, size information of the object variable, etc. necessary for generating the next object variable.

Note that the object management table 14
It is referred to from the CPU unit 11 and the special high function unit 17.

The special high function unit 17 includes an arithmetic unit 171 for controlling itself and a normal high-level programming language (C
Language, BASIC, etc.) and object-oriented language (C ++)
And a storage unit 172 for storing a method of an object described using a language, Java, etc.), and exchanging messages with the CPU unit 11 via the system bus 18 as shown in FIG. It is supposed to.

The special function unit 17 reads and writes the shared memory 13 via the system bus 18.

Further, unlike the case of the ladder program, the high-level programming language does not have the concept of turning the contacts ON / OFF, so that the special advanced unit 17 turns the internal contacts in the shared memory 13 ON / OFF. By performing the conversion, a message is transmitted to the CPU unit 11 via the internal contact of the shared memory 13.

Next, the operation of the control device of this embodiment will be described.

Here, the operation of transmitting a message from the object A to the object B in FIG. 1 and activating the method “Method-B1” in the object B is described in FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When completing the pre-processing for transmitting the message (step 110), the arithmetic unit 111 of the CPU unit 11 sets the internal contact area 1 in the shared memory 13.
33, operation / property change information (internal contact information) for the property “property-b” of the object B is set (step 120).

The operation unit 111 includes an internal contact area 133.
When the internal contact information is set, a message for activating the method "Method-B1" of the object B is output to the object B (step 130).

Subsequently, the arithmetic unit 111 stores the shared memory 13
It refers to the property “property-b” stored in the internal contact area 133 in the inside (step 140), and determines whether or not the property “property-b” is ON (step 150).

The operation unit 111 stores the property “prop” stored in the internal contact area 133 in the shared memory 13.
erty-b ”is ON (step 1
50; Yes), perform the ON process (step 16)
0), when it is determined that the property “property-b” is OFF (Step 150; No), after performing the process at the time of OFF (Step 170), the post-process for transmitting the message is executed. (Step 180) Now, the message is transmitted from the object A to the object B, and the method “Method-B” in the object B is transmitted.
End the operation that activates 1 ".

Next, the above operation will be described by replacing the above operation with the implementation of a ladder.

FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram in which an example of starting the method "Method-B1" of the object B by the event drive is described in a ladder program.

Here, the methods "Method-B1" and "Method-B2" are application instructions composed of a program as shown in FIG. 8, which will be described later, or subroutines created by the user.

The programming language for describing the method may be not only a ladder but also a high-level language such as C language or BASIC language.

As is apparent from Table 1 showing the state transition of each contact forming the circuit diagram, the label is "Method".
The output contact 74 of “-B1” is executed only once when the input contact 71 with the label “B1” changes from “OFF” to “ON.” Therefore, the input contact with the label “B1” Even if the state where "71" is kept "ON" continues, the output contact 74 labeled "Method-B1" does not become "ON", and the method "Method-B1" is not executed.

[0055]

[Table 1]

The output contact 74 labeled "Method-B1" is executed only once when the input contact 71 labeled "B1" changes from "OFF" to "ON". This will be specifically described with reference to Table 1.

In step 1, the input contact 71 (contact a) with the label "B1" is OFF, and the label is "Meth".
od-B1 "and the label is" B1_TEM ".
It is assumed that the output contact P ”is OFF.
Therefore, the input contact (contact b) 72 of “Method-B1”
The input contact 73 (contact b) labeled “B1_TEMP” is ON.

In step 2, when the input contact 71 whose label is "B1" is turned on, the label becomes "Method-B1".
Since both the input contact 72 having the label "" and the input contact 73 having the label "B1_TEMP" are ON, the output contact 74 having the label "Method-B1" and the output 75 having the label "B1_TEMP" are ON.

In step 3, when the input contact 71 with the label "B1" is turned on again, the label becomes "Method".
-B1 "and the label is" B1_TEMP "
Are both OFF, the output contact 74 labeled "Method-B1" is OFF.
On the other hand, the output contact 75 that is “B1_TEMP” is in the ON state because the input contact 71 whose label is “B1” is ON.

In step 4, when the input contact 71 with the label "B1" is continuously turned on, the label becomes "B1".
Since the input contact 73 of “_TEMP” is turned off, even if the input contact 72 of “Method-B1” is turned on, “Meth”
od-B1 "is OFF.
The output contact 75 that is “B1_TEMP” is in the ON state because the input contact 71 whose label is “B1” is ON.

In step 5, when the input contact 71 with the label "B1" changes from ON to OFF, the input contact 72 with the label "Method-B1" and the label "B1"
The output contact 74 of "Method-B1" is OFF regardless of the signal state of the input contact 73 of "_TEMP", while the output contact 75 of "B1_TEMP" has the label "B1". Since a certain input contact 71 is OFF, OF
The state becomes the F state. Note that the input contact 72 labeled “Method-B1” is in the ON state, and the label “B1_
The input contact 73 of “TEMP” is in the OFF state.

In step 6, when the input contact 71 with the label "B1" is continuously turned off, the label becomes "Me".
thod-B1 "and the label is" B1_TE ".
Since both the input contacts 73 of “MP” are in the OFF state, the output contact 74 of which the label is “Method-B1” is turned off.
It remains in the F state. On the other hand, the output contact 75 with the label “B1_TEMP” has the input contact 71 with the label “B1” turned off.
Therefore, it remains in the OFF state.

In step 7, when the input contact 71 with the label "B1" is turned from OFF to ON, the input contact 72 with the label "Method-B1" and the label "B1"
Since both the input contacts 73 of “_TEMP” are in the ON state, the output contact 74 of the label “Method-B1” and the output contact 75 of “B1_TEMP” are in the ON state.

In step 8, when the input contact 71 with the label "B1" is turned on again, the label "Method"
-B1 "and the label is" B1_TEMP "
Are both OFF, the output contact 74 labeled "Method-B1" is OFF.
On the other hand, the output contact 75 that is “B1_TEMP” is in the ON state because the input contact 71 whose label is “B1” is ON.

The state transition table in Table 1 described above is for the circuit A representing the output of the method "Method-B1", but is for the circuit B representing the output of the method "Method-B2". This is also the same, and the detailed description is omitted.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a subroutine for changing the output contact to be turned on depending on the state of the property.

In this subroutine, the label "Property
If the input contact 91 (contact b) of "-b" is OFF, the output contact 92 of label "OUT-1" is ON, and the input contact 93 (contact b) of label "Property-b" is ON.
Then, the output contact 94 labeled "OUT-2" is turned ON.

Therefore, in this example of the subroutine, the operation of the method can be changed according to the values of the contacts 91 and 93 having the label “Property-b”.

As described above, by implementing the method of the object B, when a message is transmitted from the object A, the predetermined method B of the object B can be activated and the property value of the object B can be changed. , The operation of the object B can be changed.

That is, the label "B1" changes from OFF to ON.
Is equivalent to transmitting a message to the object B, and the subroutine executed when the label changes from “OFF” to “ON” in the label “B1” is an event drive format which is activated by the message transmission. Equivalent to method.

In the control device of this embodiment, the operation unit 111 of the CPU unit 11 activates a method for executing a sequential program based on the activation information stored in the internal contact area 133 of the shared memory 13. A sequential program written in a ladder programming language other than an oriented programming language can be made object-oriented.

Further, based on the start information stored in the internal contact area 133 of the shared memory 13, a CP for executing a sequential program described in ladder language is used.
Since it has the operation unit 111 of the U unit 11 and the operation unit 171 of the special high-performance unit 17 that executes a sequential program described in a programming language other than the ladder language, objects in an arbitrary language are mixed mainly in the ladder language. Can be used, multiple execution systems (CPUs) can be used together, operation overhead can be reduced, and cooperation with special (high-performance) units The operation can be easily performed.

[0073]

According to the present invention, a method for executing a sequential program is activated based on activation information indicating whether a method stored in activation information storage means should be activated. Sequential programs written in a language other than the oriented programming language can be made object oriented.

Thus, the advantages of the object-oriented programming language can be shared.

Further, a first method execution means for executing a sequential program described in a ladder language, which is executed based on the start information stored in the start information storage means, and a first method execution means for executing a sequential program described in a programming language other than the ladder language. Since it has the second method execution means for executing the sequential program, it is possible to mix and use objects of an arbitrary language, mainly a ladder language.

For this reason, even if both the calling side and the called side are described in different languages, they are executed, and the processing overhead can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a concept of mounting an object included in a control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining data stored in a data memory in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an object management table in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining message transmission between a special advanced function unit and a CPU unit.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing operation when transmitting a message from an object A to an object B;

FIG. 7 is a ladder diagram illustrating a processing operation when transmitting a message from an object A to an object B;

FIG. 8 is a ladder diagram showing a subroutine in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a mode in which a program described in a conventionally used object-oriented programming language is executed.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 11 CPU unit 11 111 Operation unit (method execution unit) (first method execution unit) 112 Storage unit 12 Data memory 13 Shared memory (startup information storage unit) 131 Input contact area 132 Output contact area 133 Internal contact area (Activation information storage means) 14 Object management table (Activation information designation information storage means) 15 Input unit 16 Output unit 17 Special high function unit 171 Operation unit (second method execution unit) 172 Storage unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A method according to claim 1, wherein a message is sequentially transmitted to a method constituting a sequential program for controlling a control device, so that the method receiving the message should start the method in a control device for executing the sequential program. Activation information storage means for storing activation information indicating whether or not there is, and method execution means for executing the method based on the activation information stored in the activation information storage means. Control device. 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein a message is sequentially transmitted to a method constituting a sequential program for controlling the control device, and the method receiving the message should start the method in a control device executing the sequential program. Activation information storage means for storing activation information indicating whether or not the first method is executed, and a first method execution for executing a sequential program described in a ladder language based on the activation information stored in the activation information storage means Means, and second method execution means for executing a sequential program described in a programming language other than a ladder language based on the activation information stored in the activation information storage means. Control device. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a boot information specifying information storage unit for storing specification information for specifying a location of the boot information stored in said boot information storage unit.
Or the control device according to 2.